The Theory of Motivated Information Management and Posttraumatic Growth: Emerging Adults’ Uncertainty Management in Response to an Adverse Life Experience

Abstract

This study tested the degree to which the uncertainty management process that emerging adults go through following an adverse event predicts their perceptions of posttraumatic growth. Participants included 215 emerging adults who had experienced an adverse life event within the past year. Overall, the results largely supported the theory of motivated information management, as uncertainty discrepancies positively predicted negative emotions about the adverse event, which in turn predicted outcome expectancies, but not efficacy assessments. Outcome expectancies were predictive of efficacy assessments, which in turn were predictive of a willingness to seek information about the event from a parent. Collectively, uncertainty management behaviors predicted posttraumatic growth and included significant indirect effects for uncertainty discrepancies through communication and target efficacy, respectively.